Press Release
Ziopharm Oncology Responds to Recent Stock Decline and Clarifies Exclusivity Rights for Clinical Assets
“Our stock price is significantly down of late, and we want to assure the market that our business fundamentals are unchanged and we are optimistic about Ziopharm’s future especially in light of the recent announcements we made with regards to our restructured relationship with
Over approximately the last three years, Ziopharm and
On
- For Sleeping Beauty intellectual property for all TCRs, including specificity for neoantigens and shared antigens; Sleeping Beauty-generated TCR-T cell therapy targeting neoantigens in solid tumors is being developed in collaboration with NCI, which expects to begin treating patients in a phase 1 trial in mid-2019;
- Sleeping Beauty-generated CAR-T cell therapy targeting the CD19 antigen with mbIL15 and a kill switch, which is advancing to a clinical trial with two-day T-cell manufacturing in 2H2019;
- Controlled IL-12 platform (Ad-RTS-hIL-12 plus veledimex); Ziopharm has multiple trials with this asset as a monotherapy and in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors underway and/or planned for 2019.
Ziopharm holds exclusive rights to a second, unnamed target for Sleeping Beauty CAR-T therapy and is evaluating its rights to pursue this target following Precigen’s assumption of ARES Trading S.A.’s rights under the parties’ collaboration agreement. During negotiations Ziopharm agreed to release CD33, the fourth pipeline component, to Precigen.
Precigen cannot use the Sleeping Beauty platform intellectual property for TCRs in T cells that has been licensed to Ziopharm, and Precigen cannot research or develop any TCR therapies that target neoantigens (i.e., individual, patient-specific antigens) for three years, under the license agreement. In addition, Precigen cannot use another regulatable switch technology to conditionally express IL-12 for three years for the treatment of cancer.
“Ziopharm’s rights to Sleeping Beauty TCR- and CAR-T cell therapies, IL-12 with the RheoSwitch and membrane-bound interleukin 15 are clear, and we are committed to protecting our intellectual property and these assets,” said
Dr. Cooper added, “We expect all three programs will be in the clinic in 2019. As for our agreement with
For additional details, including the elimination of approximately
About
Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, and in some cases can be identified by terms such as "may," "will," "could," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," and "believes." These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the progress and timing of the development of Ziopharm’s research and development programs, including when each of its programs will be in the clinic, and statements regarding future performance. Although Ziopharm’s management teams believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Ziopharm, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including whether any of Ziopharm’s product candidates will advance further in the preclinical research or clinical trial process, including receiving clearance from the
Company contacts:
Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations
617-502-1881
dconnolly@ziopharm.com
Vice President, Portfolio Strategy
617-765-3770
mmoyer@ziopharm.com
Source: ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc